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1) Once the conviction:
‘I am not the body’ becomes so well grounded that he can no longer feel, think and act for and on behalf of the body, he will easily discover that he is the universal being, knowing, acting,
that in him and through him the entire universe is real, conscious and active.
2) The totality of conscious experiences is nature.
As a conscious self you are a part of nature.
As awareness, you are beyond. Seeing nature as mere consciousness is awareness.[ but for awareness Maharaj says : There is a mysterious power that looks after them. That power is (awareness, Self, Life, God, whatever name you give it). It is the foundation, the ultimate support of all that is.]
‘I am not the body’ becomes so well grounded that he can no longer feel, think and act for and on behalf of the body, he will easily discover that he is the universal being, knowing, acting,
that in him and through him the entire universe is real, conscious and active.
2) The totality of conscious experiences is nature.
As a conscious self you are a part of nature.
As awareness, you are beyond. Seeing nature as mere consciousness is awareness.[ but for awareness Maharaj says : There is a mysterious power that looks after them. That power is (awareness, Self, Life, God, whatever name you give it). It is the foundation, the ultimate support of all that is.]
The memory of the past unfulfilled desires traps energy, which manifests itself as a person. When its charge gets exhausted, the person dies. Unfulfilled desires are carried over into the next birth. Self-identification with the body creates ever fresh desires and there is no end to them, unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that is liberating, for you cannot abandon desire,unless its causes and effects are clearly seen. I do not say that the same person is reborn. It dies and dies for good. But its memories remain and their desires and fears. They supply the energy for a new person. The real takes no part in it, but makes it possible by giving it the light.
I Am That, Chapter 76
I Am That, Chapter 76
Questioner: “I would like to know if you could guide me, as a mother.”
Moojibaba: “Your establishment in the Isness will provide all the guidance you will need. Because the guidance will arise spontaneously. It will be so beautiful, it will be so powerful that when you compare to guiding from the person (points to mind), you’ll say “no, no, no that’s just not working.” It will come spontaneously from inside you. Don’t panic, don’t be rushed, just be again from the Isness and you’ll hear it, you’ll understand what you’ll need to do. It will become clearer and clearer, it will become very joyful. You will be the best mother, in fact, because you have totally the support of the Self. You are one with it, you are in harmony with it… and you’ll find that if you don’t determine something like “ok I want to be this kind of..” No, just be present. Then you’re in natural time with the universe. And your responses being spontaneous and intuitive will always correspond to what is needed appropriately, to the needs of the moment. Yes. Ok maybe I cannot say ‘perfect’ because we are still speaking about phenominality, but as good as it can be, you see. And you will have the sense also inside that it is in alignment with the truest of Truth that is present within you.”
September 2017
Zmar Retreat
Moojibaba: “Your establishment in the Isness will provide all the guidance you will need. Because the guidance will arise spontaneously. It will be so beautiful, it will be so powerful that when you compare to guiding from the person (points to mind), you’ll say “no, no, no that’s just not working.” It will come spontaneously from inside you. Don’t panic, don’t be rushed, just be again from the Isness and you’ll hear it, you’ll understand what you’ll need to do. It will become clearer and clearer, it will become very joyful. You will be the best mother, in fact, because you have totally the support of the Self. You are one with it, you are in harmony with it… and you’ll find that if you don’t determine something like “ok I want to be this kind of..” No, just be present. Then you’re in natural time with the universe. And your responses being spontaneous and intuitive will always correspond to what is needed appropriately, to the needs of the moment. Yes. Ok maybe I cannot say ‘perfect’ because we are still speaking about phenominality, but as good as it can be, you see. And you will have the sense also inside that it is in alignment with the truest of Truth that is present within you.”
September 2017
Zmar Retreat
Nothing weaker than water.
Nothing stronger than rock.
Still, a slow flow of water can cut through mountains.
Nothing stronger than rock.
Still, a slow flow of water can cut through mountains.
Sage Ribhu and His disciple Nidagha - ‘I’ and ‘YOU’
-------------------------------------------------
An earnest devotee asked Sri Bhagavan about the method to realize the Self. As usual, Sri Bhagavan told him to find out who is the ‘I’ in his question. After a few more questions in this strain the devotee asked, “Instead of enquiring ‘Who am I?’, can I put the question to myself ‘Who are you?’ since then, my mind may be fixed on you whom I consider to be God in the form of Guru.”
Sri Bhagavan replied, “Whatever form your enquiry may take, you must finally come to the one ‘I’, the Self. All these distinctions made between ‘I’ and ‘you’, master and disciple, are merely a sign of one’s ignorance. That ‘I’ Supreme alone is. To think otherwise is to delude oneself.” Thereupon Sri Bhagavan told the following story.
A Puranic story of Sage Ribhu and his disciple Nidagha, is particularly instructive.
Although Ribhu taught his disciple the Supreme Truth of the One Brahman without a second, Nidagha, in spite of his erudition and understanding, did not get sufficient conviction to adopt and follow the path of Jnana, but settled down in his native town to lead a life devoted to the observance of ceremonial religion.
But the sage, Ribhu, loved his disciple as deeply as the latter venerated his Master. In spite of his age, Ribhu would himself go to his disciple in the town, just to see how far the latter had outgrown his ritualism.
At times the sage went in disguise, so that he might observe how Nidagha would act when he did not know that he was being observed by his master. On one such occasion Ribhu, who had put on the disguise of a village rustic, found Nidagha intently watching a royal procession.
Unrecognized by the town-dweller Nidagha, the village rustic enquired what the bustle was all about, and was told that the king was going in procession.
“Oh! It is the king. He goes in procession! But where is he?” asked the rustic.
“There, on the elephant,” said Nidagha.
“You say the king is on the elephant. Yes, I see the two,” said the rustic, “But which the king is and which the elephant is?”
“What!” exclaimed Nidagha. “You see the two, but do not know that the man above is the king and the animal below is the elephant? What is the use of talking to a man like you?”
“Pray, be not impatient with an ignorant man like me,” begged the rustic. “But you said ‘above’ and ‘below’ – what do they mean?”
Nidagha could stand it no more. “You see the king and the elephant, the one above and the other below. Yet you want to know what is meant by ‘above’ and ‘below’?” burst out Nidagha. “If things seen and words spoken can convey so little to you, action alone can teach you. Bend forward and you will know it all too well”.
The rustic did as he was told. Nidagha got on his shoulders and said, “Know it now. I am above as the king; you are below as the elephant. Is that clear enough?”
“No, not yet,” was the rustic’s quiet reply. “You say that you are above like the king, and I am below like the elephant. The ‘king’, the ‘elephant’, ‘above’ and ‘below’ – so far it is clear. But
pray tell me what you mean by ‘I’ and ‘you’?”
When Nidagha was thus confronted all of a sudden with the mighty problem of defining the ‘you’ apart from the ‘I’, light dawned on his mind.
At once he jumped down and fell at his Master’s feet saying, “Who else but my venerable Master, Ribhu, could have thus drawn my mind from the superficialities of physical existence to the true Being of the Self? Oh! Benign Master, I crave thy blessings.”
- Stories Ramana Told
-------------------------------------------------
An earnest devotee asked Sri Bhagavan about the method to realize the Self. As usual, Sri Bhagavan told him to find out who is the ‘I’ in his question. After a few more questions in this strain the devotee asked, “Instead of enquiring ‘Who am I?’, can I put the question to myself ‘Who are you?’ since then, my mind may be fixed on you whom I consider to be God in the form of Guru.”
Sri Bhagavan replied, “Whatever form your enquiry may take, you must finally come to the one ‘I’, the Self. All these distinctions made between ‘I’ and ‘you’, master and disciple, are merely a sign of one’s ignorance. That ‘I’ Supreme alone is. To think otherwise is to delude oneself.” Thereupon Sri Bhagavan told the following story.
A Puranic story of Sage Ribhu and his disciple Nidagha, is particularly instructive.
Although Ribhu taught his disciple the Supreme Truth of the One Brahman without a second, Nidagha, in spite of his erudition and understanding, did not get sufficient conviction to adopt and follow the path of Jnana, but settled down in his native town to lead a life devoted to the observance of ceremonial religion.
But the sage, Ribhu, loved his disciple as deeply as the latter venerated his Master. In spite of his age, Ribhu would himself go to his disciple in the town, just to see how far the latter had outgrown his ritualism.
At times the sage went in disguise, so that he might observe how Nidagha would act when he did not know that he was being observed by his master. On one such occasion Ribhu, who had put on the disguise of a village rustic, found Nidagha intently watching a royal procession.
Unrecognized by the town-dweller Nidagha, the village rustic enquired what the bustle was all about, and was told that the king was going in procession.
“Oh! It is the king. He goes in procession! But where is he?” asked the rustic.
“There, on the elephant,” said Nidagha.
“You say the king is on the elephant. Yes, I see the two,” said the rustic, “But which the king is and which the elephant is?”
“What!” exclaimed Nidagha. “You see the two, but do not know that the man above is the king and the animal below is the elephant? What is the use of talking to a man like you?”
“Pray, be not impatient with an ignorant man like me,” begged the rustic. “But you said ‘above’ and ‘below’ – what do they mean?”
Nidagha could stand it no more. “You see the king and the elephant, the one above and the other below. Yet you want to know what is meant by ‘above’ and ‘below’?” burst out Nidagha. “If things seen and words spoken can convey so little to you, action alone can teach you. Bend forward and you will know it all too well”.
The rustic did as he was told. Nidagha got on his shoulders and said, “Know it now. I am above as the king; you are below as the elephant. Is that clear enough?”
“No, not yet,” was the rustic’s quiet reply. “You say that you are above like the king, and I am below like the elephant. The ‘king’, the ‘elephant’, ‘above’ and ‘below’ – so far it is clear. But
pray tell me what you mean by ‘I’ and ‘you’?”
When Nidagha was thus confronted all of a sudden with the mighty problem of defining the ‘you’ apart from the ‘I’, light dawned on his mind.
At once he jumped down and fell at his Master’s feet saying, “Who else but my venerable Master, Ribhu, could have thus drawn my mind from the superficialities of physical existence to the true Being of the Self? Oh! Benign Master, I crave thy blessings.”
- Stories Ramana Told
Tonics for All Alike
--------------------------------
Once Dr. Ramachandra Rao, an Ayurvedic physician, made out a long list of herbs and ingredients and showed it to Bhagavan. Bhagavan carefully perused it and commented on the value of each of the herbs, and obediently asked, “For whom is this medicine, my dear man?” The kindly doctor said, “For Sri Bhagavan himself.” On hearing that, Bhagavan said, “No doubt you have given me a long list of items but where am I to get the money to pay for them? It could cost Rs. 10/- and whom am I to approach for it?”
Someone quietly said, looking around at the Ashram property, “Whose is all this, Swamiji?”
“Yes, but what have I? If I want a quarter anna, I must go and ask the Sarvadhikari. How should I go and ask him? He gives me a little food, if I go there as soon as the bell rings.”
The physician humbly volunteered to pay for the medicines himself. Bhagavan said, “Oh yes? You will get them? But if that medicine is good for me, it must necessarily be good for all the others here. Can you give it to them as well?”
Others in the hall quickly picked up on Bhagavan’s line of argument and made soft protests: “Why do we want it, Swamiji?” Bhagavan replied, “If people who do physical work don’t need a body-building tonic, how is that I who merely sits here and eats should need one? That can’t be!”
The doctor said, “Bhagavan always declines everything that is offered, but if he agrees to take something, won’t it be forthcoming? Or if not medicines, why not take some nutritious food such as milk, fruit and almonds?”
Bhagavan replied, “I am a daridranarayana (God in the form of the poor and the destitute). How can I afford it? Besides, mine is a large family. How can all of them have milk, fruit and almonds?”
- Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 29th November, 1945
--------------------------------
Once Dr. Ramachandra Rao, an Ayurvedic physician, made out a long list of herbs and ingredients and showed it to Bhagavan. Bhagavan carefully perused it and commented on the value of each of the herbs, and obediently asked, “For whom is this medicine, my dear man?” The kindly doctor said, “For Sri Bhagavan himself.” On hearing that, Bhagavan said, “No doubt you have given me a long list of items but where am I to get the money to pay for them? It could cost Rs. 10/- and whom am I to approach for it?”
Someone quietly said, looking around at the Ashram property, “Whose is all this, Swamiji?”
“Yes, but what have I? If I want a quarter anna, I must go and ask the Sarvadhikari. How should I go and ask him? He gives me a little food, if I go there as soon as the bell rings.”
The physician humbly volunteered to pay for the medicines himself. Bhagavan said, “Oh yes? You will get them? But if that medicine is good for me, it must necessarily be good for all the others here. Can you give it to them as well?”
Others in the hall quickly picked up on Bhagavan’s line of argument and made soft protests: “Why do we want it, Swamiji?” Bhagavan replied, “If people who do physical work don’t need a body-building tonic, how is that I who merely sits here and eats should need one? That can’t be!”
The doctor said, “Bhagavan always declines everything that is offered, but if he agrees to take something, won’t it be forthcoming? Or if not medicines, why not take some nutritious food such as milk, fruit and almonds?”
Bhagavan replied, “I am a daridranarayana (God in the form of the poor and the destitute). How can I afford it? Besides, mine is a large family. How can all of them have milk, fruit and almonds?”
- Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 29th November, 1945
When you do things from your Soul, you feel a river moving within you, a joy.
From the unreal delusion lead me to the real truth
From the darkness lead me to the light
From death lead me to immortality.
He who knows both knowledge and action,
with action overcomes death
and with knowledge reaches immortality.
In him are woven the sky and the earth
and all the regions of the air,
and in him rest the mind
and all the powers of life.
Know him as the ONE
and leave aside all other words.
He is the bridge of immortality.
Beyond the senses is the mind,
and beyond the mind is reason, its essence.
Beyond reason is the Spirit in man,
and beyond this is the Spirit of the Universe,
the evolver of all.
When the five senses and the mind are still,
and reason itself rests in silence,
then begins the Path supreme.
So on and so forth
So on and so forth
So on and so forth
And when he is seen in his immanence and transcendence,
then the ties that have bound the heart are unloosened,
the doubts of the mind vanish,
and the law of Karma works no more.
Translation of Om Asato Ma Sadgamaya mantra.
From the darkness lead me to the light
From death lead me to immortality.
He who knows both knowledge and action,
with action overcomes death
and with knowledge reaches immortality.
In him are woven the sky and the earth
and all the regions of the air,
and in him rest the mind
and all the powers of life.
Know him as the ONE
and leave aside all other words.
He is the bridge of immortality.
Beyond the senses is the mind,
and beyond the mind is reason, its essence.
Beyond reason is the Spirit in man,
and beyond this is the Spirit of the Universe,
the evolver of all.
When the five senses and the mind are still,
and reason itself rests in silence,
then begins the Path supreme.
So on and so forth
So on and so forth
So on and so forth
And when he is seen in his immanence and transcendence,
then the ties that have bound the heart are unloosened,
the doubts of the mind vanish,
and the law of Karma works no more.
Translation of Om Asato Ma Sadgamaya mantra.
Just rest.
No time.
No intention.
No future.
No identity.
Just for a moment.
The world can do without you for a few moments.
No time.
No intention.
No future.
No identity.
Just for a moment.
The world can do without you for a few moments.
The world in which you live is not projected onto you,
but by you. All comes from within.
I Am That, Chapter 63
but by you. All comes from within.
I Am That, Chapter 63
Having come so far as to discover
all appearances to be unreal,
the final obstacle is the identity
of the seeker.
The seeker says, ‘I just want to be free,
I just want to be who I am.
That is all I want now, nothing else.’
He says, ‘Please remove the last obstacle,’
not knowing that the obstacle is he himself.
But all of this has only been
our dream-talking, dream-walking,
dream-seeking.
Now through the Master’s guidance
and grace, one must twist oneself
loose from this conditioned identity
as a seeker by recognising
that it too is observable,
and is therefore phenomenal.
Take time to be anchored in this
because this recognition is crucial.
The seeker remains dissatisfied and says,
‘You never answer my questions.’
The question and the questioner have been
answered but can the ‘seeker’ accept
an answer that reveals its unreality?
He says, ‘Wow, but without me,
how can I be found?’
And I say, Without ‘you’ how can you be lost?
When this is grasped, one has found
the master key to awakening.
all appearances to be unreal,
the final obstacle is the identity
of the seeker.
The seeker says, ‘I just want to be free,
I just want to be who I am.
That is all I want now, nothing else.’
He says, ‘Please remove the last obstacle,’
not knowing that the obstacle is he himself.
But all of this has only been
our dream-talking, dream-walking,
dream-seeking.
Now through the Master’s guidance
and grace, one must twist oneself
loose from this conditioned identity
as a seeker by recognising
that it too is observable,
and is therefore phenomenal.
Take time to be anchored in this
because this recognition is crucial.
The seeker remains dissatisfied and says,
‘You never answer my questions.’
The question and the questioner have been
answered but can the ‘seeker’ accept
an answer that reveals its unreality?
He says, ‘Wow, but without me,
how can I be found?’
And I say, Without ‘you’ how can you be lost?
When this is grasped, one has found
the master key to awakening.
Like love , surrender cannot be studied or learned from books, from a particular person or from a university. Surrender comes as love grows. In fact, the two grow simultaneously. Ultimately, we must surrender to our own true Self, but surrender requires a lot of courage. We need a daring attitude to sacrifice our ego. This requires us to welcome and accept everything without any feelings of sorrow or disappointment.
~ Amma (108 Quotes on Love)
~ Amma (108 Quotes on Love)
You are not a kindergarten student of spirituality, so you must cease to think and speak as if you are a phenomenal object. You are the animating consciousness that provides sentience to the sentient being. You are the pure Awareness. You do not need to be liberated.
I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.
Silent Meditation
Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to even subtler levels, without losing one's grip on the levels left behind.
The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the 'I-am-so-and-so', beyond 'so-I-am', beyond 'I-am-the-witness-only', beyond 'there-is', beyond all ideas into the impersonally personal pure being. But you must be energetic when you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation.
Limit your interests and activities to what is needed for you and your dependents' barest needs. Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind had built around you. Believe me, you will not regret.
Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to even subtler levels, without losing one's grip on the levels left behind.
The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the 'I-am-so-and-so', beyond 'so-I-am', beyond 'I-am-the-witness-only', beyond 'there-is', beyond all ideas into the impersonally personal pure being. But you must be energetic when you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation.
Limit your interests and activities to what is needed for you and your dependents' barest needs. Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind had built around you. Believe me, you will not regret.
Some people think that there are different stages in jnana. The Self is nitya aparoksha, i.e., ever-realized, knowingly or unknowingly.
"We were talking not long ago about one man whose wife was caring for homeless people, so to speak. And he was talking to one of these ‘homeless’ persons and he was saying, ‘my wife has done so much work for the homeless’ and so on.
And the homeless man says, ‘everybody is homeless.’
Everybody is homeless until you find God. Until you find Truth.
You could live in a palace with a hundred rooms, but you’re not home until you’re home here.
When you are at home inside your own Being, you are at home. Otherwise not.
Satsang is to reintroduce you to your home.
Your home and yourself are one, not two."
- Moojibaba
“Satsang of the Week” for 8 December 2019
And the homeless man says, ‘everybody is homeless.’
Everybody is homeless until you find God. Until you find Truth.
You could live in a palace with a hundred rooms, but you’re not home until you’re home here.
When you are at home inside your own Being, you are at home. Otherwise not.
Satsang is to reintroduce you to your home.
Your home and yourself are one, not two."
- Moojibaba
“Satsang of the Week” for 8 December 2019
Abandon the drama of the world and seek the Self within.
Without the intrusiveness of the personal mind, life is observed to be unfolding in a natural and harmonious way. Do not waste time merely wishing for things to get better. The whole world is doing this and so no one is really happy. We miss the true life. In fact, happiness arises when you stop chasing for something other than your own pure nature. And this happiness remains with you.
The universal tendency in human beings is to seek lasting happiness in the field of names and forms, a transient field. This is really a form of avoidance and a distraction from what is timelessly present and ever perfect within us, our divine nature and Self. Ignorance of the Truth is the main cause of misery.
Avoid expectations and especially be aware of the tendency to wait for 'next' as a promise to happiness, the next good feeling, the next adventure or invitation from the mind, in short, the next experience that, in fact, does quite the contrary: it pulls your attention away from pure presence, the seat of joy.
No one has ever experienced 'the future'. Reflect. It is all imagination. How to transform these tendencies Simply, begin by paying attention to the natural thought-free state, the pure sense of existence, the feeling ‘I Am’ that is naturally present in you. Shift the attention away from the mind-traffic and let it rest in impersonal awareness.
Keep doing this each time the attention goes out towards sense objects or obsessive self-interest. Self-attention is the beginning of real Self-discovery. It returns the attention time and again to its source, the one Self. Get used to staying in your natural and neutral state of being. It is a state of emptiness.
Do not be afraid of this. In fact, get increasingly used to being empty. This emptiness and joy are synonymous. They are one. This is really what is meant by the saying, ‘to enjoy one’s Self. It is a state of unfading contentment, wisdom, love and happiness.
The universal tendency in human beings is to seek lasting happiness in the field of names and forms, a transient field. This is really a form of avoidance and a distraction from what is timelessly present and ever perfect within us, our divine nature and Self. Ignorance of the Truth is the main cause of misery.
Avoid expectations and especially be aware of the tendency to wait for 'next' as a promise to happiness, the next good feeling, the next adventure or invitation from the mind, in short, the next experience that, in fact, does quite the contrary: it pulls your attention away from pure presence, the seat of joy.
No one has ever experienced 'the future'. Reflect. It is all imagination. How to transform these tendencies Simply, begin by paying attention to the natural thought-free state, the pure sense of existence, the feeling ‘I Am’ that is naturally present in you. Shift the attention away from the mind-traffic and let it rest in impersonal awareness.
Keep doing this each time the attention goes out towards sense objects or obsessive self-interest. Self-attention is the beginning of real Self-discovery. It returns the attention time and again to its source, the one Self. Get used to staying in your natural and neutral state of being. It is a state of emptiness.
Do not be afraid of this. In fact, get increasingly used to being empty. This emptiness and joy are synonymous. They are one. This is really what is meant by the saying, ‘to enjoy one’s Self. It is a state of unfading contentment, wisdom, love and happiness.
There are no others to help. A rich man, when he hands over his entire fortune to his family, has not a coin left to give a beggar. So is the wise man (Jnani) stripped of all his powers and possessions? Nothing, literally nothing can be said about him. He cannot help anybody, for he is everybody. He is the poor and also his poverty, the thief and also his thievery. How can he be said to help when he is not apart? Who thinks of himself as separate from the world, let him help the world. The only thing that can help is to wake up from the dream.
Once the private secretary to the Governor of Pondicherry came to the Ashram with a long list of questions written in an elaborate, complex style of French. Handing over the paper to Bhagavan, he sat on the window sill opposite the couch. Finding the questions in French, Bhagavan asked me to translate them.
As I was struggling with word-by-word translation and was finding the French difficult to translate, Bhagavan said, “That’s not necessary, just tell me the gist.” I scanned the questions and told Bhagavan that he really didn’t want oral answers but rather in the form of an experience.
Bhagavan paused for a moment, and then slowly turned his face in the direction of the questioner and rested eyes on him. After about 30 seconds, I noticed the man’s body trembling and shaking all over.
Then he blurted out, “Oh no, Bhagavan, not now! Please, Bhagavan, not now!” I was standing at the side of Bhagavan, watching this extraordinary scene and wondering what a being this Bhagavan was. He was a storehouse of power, yet so kind, gentle and compassionate.
- N. Balarama Reddy, My Reminiscences
As I was struggling with word-by-word translation and was finding the French difficult to translate, Bhagavan said, “That’s not necessary, just tell me the gist.” I scanned the questions and told Bhagavan that he really didn’t want oral answers but rather in the form of an experience.
Bhagavan paused for a moment, and then slowly turned his face in the direction of the questioner and rested eyes on him. After about 30 seconds, I noticed the man’s body trembling and shaking all over.
Then he blurted out, “Oh no, Bhagavan, not now! Please, Bhagavan, not now!” I was standing at the side of Bhagavan, watching this extraordinary scene and wondering what a being this Bhagavan was. He was a storehouse of power, yet so kind, gentle and compassionate.
- N. Balarama Reddy, My Reminiscences
If you go by the way of your thoughts you will be carried away by them and you will find yourself in an endless maze.
A group of people came on a visit to Sri Bhagavan. One of them asked: “How can I keep my mind aright?”
M.: A refractory bull is lured to the stall by means of grass. Similarly the mind must be lured by good thoughts.
D.: But it does not remain steady.
M.: The bull accustomed to stray takes delight in going astray. However he must be lured with luscious grass to the stall. Even so he will continue to trespass into the neighbour’s fields. He must gradually be made to realise that the same kind of good grass can be had in his own place. After a time he will remain in the stall without straying. Later a time will come when, even if driven out of the stall, he will return to the stall without going into the neighbouring fields. So also the mind must be trained to take to right ways. It will gradually grow accustomed to good ways and will not return to wrong ways.
D.: What are the good ways to be shown to the mind?
M.: Thought of God.
M.: A refractory bull is lured to the stall by means of grass. Similarly the mind must be lured by good thoughts.
D.: But it does not remain steady.
M.: The bull accustomed to stray takes delight in going astray. However he must be lured with luscious grass to the stall. Even so he will continue to trespass into the neighbour’s fields. He must gradually be made to realise that the same kind of good grass can be had in his own place. After a time he will remain in the stall without straying. Later a time will come when, even if driven out of the stall, he will return to the stall without going into the neighbouring fields. So also the mind must be trained to take to right ways. It will gradually grow accustomed to good ways and will not return to wrong ways.
D.: What are the good ways to be shown to the mind?
M.: Thought of God.
Love is the bridge between you and everything.
"Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received but only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage."
– St. Francis of Assisi.
– St. Francis of Assisi.
God is because you are, you are because God is. The two are one.
Beings
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